nicknamed "Old Abe" and "Honest Abe"; born in Kentucky to impoverished parents and mainly self-educated; a Springfield lawyer. Republicans chose him to run against Senator Douglas (a Democrat) in the senatorial elections of 1858. Although he loss victory to senatorship that year, Lincoln came to be one of the most prominent northern politicians and emerged as a Republican nominee for president. Although he won the presidential elections of 1860, he was a minority and sectional president (he was not allowed on the ballot in ten southern states). Lincoln winning this election have South Carolinians an excuse to secede from the Union and caused the South to completely break off from the North.